Manufacturer’s View on Automatic Defense Cuts

In the defense and aerospace industry, “the most specialized skills and technical expertise are found in a deep, rich supply chain, made up of small and midsized companies in towns and cities across the country,” wrote Richard Sweatman in this guest column for the Orlando Sentinel.

Mr. Sweatman is the president of one of those companies, Southern Manufacturing Technologies of Tampa, Florida. His argument is that the federal government’s looming defense cuts, because they will be applied abruptly and automatically, will have the effect of snuffing out vital engineering knowledge.